I am leaning toward the Viewsonic it looks better but the Samsung a better deal. I don't know anything about the Sceptre other than it a new model. It will probley go on sale for $175 new poducts usually go sale when they first come out...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824155045
I've spend the night over at my uncle's place a few times... he has this monitor on his second computer. This monitor looked great on the reccomended resolution @60HZ in BF2142 with an old x850 AGP card on meduim with 2xFSAA... Yeah it's an inch under your goal but this is a very good monitor.

I am leaning toward the Viewsonic it looks better but the Samsung a better deal. I don't know anything about the Sceptre other than it a new model. It will probley go on sale for $175 new poducts usually go sale when they first come out...

you said only for gaming so I sudgest a 20" monitor, either the viewsonic or the samsung.. I like the 206/226 series thier also coming down in price from when they were st released.

but yes the 205 is a great montior, so is the viewsonic. The Sceptre X20WG-1080P.. is 1920x1200 resolution if you were to get that, you would need some serious hardware to keep up gaming at that res with high detail. (graphics card), though it would look nice Im sure.

1440x900 is crap...?? ??????? wtf?
Like I said before the image quality with that monitor is SUPERB.

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Yeah, really low res.

my 204B is 1600x1200 native.

When you get a 20" monitor and then attempt to stretch a low resolution to it, it looks like crap, plain and simple.

If you're putting $200+ into a monitor, why not get a high res? It gives you a much superior gaming image, easier on the GPU than stacking AA, and gives you a LOT more working space while in windows/linux doing stuff like dreamweaver, photoshop, or just web browsing.

Too fast response rate = blur.
3-5ms is safe and productive at the same time.

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That's only when the company gets too aggressive with their overdrive technologies. You can usually turn that off.

@Everyone - Don't pay too much attention to the response times. There is no set standard to measure them. Most manufacturers use gray to gray to measure response time. The problem is, none of them use the same testing methods or shades of gray. The biggest things you want to consider for a monitor are color spectrum (16.7m colors or better recommended), viewing angles, resolution, and pixel pitch (the smaller, the better). Most modern panels are fast enough to handle gaming nowadays, so response rate is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

There are also many different types of panels. The most popular and cheapest is TN-Film. It has fast response times, but lackluster viewing angles and color reproduction.

My personal favorite is S-IPS. The color reproduction is second to none, as are the viewing angles. They generally have a slower response rating, but my 20" Apple does not ghost at all during gaming or movies, thus proving that response time is an overrated spec.

EDIT: All that said, this is the monitor I would choose for under $300. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009105
It's a P-MVA panel, so the viewing angle and color gamut should be excellent. I'm gonna be buying it when money permits, to replace my Samsung 941bw. My Samsung is a TN-Film panel, and I just don't like it.

Not anymore. Things have come a long way in the past few years for LCDs. There are some truly great deals out there, but there's also a lot of garbage out there, too. All I can say is, do your research, and avoid the marketing hype, because there's tons of it out there now.